SA’s first floating bus: Launching at the end of this month

SA’s first floating bus is coming to Cape Town at the end of this month.

A bus that is also a boat?

Visitors can look forward to a unique experience that will be coming to the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town – a tourist bus that can transform into a boat.

People will have the opportunity to do some sightseeing from both the road and the sea. The vehicle has 40 seats. The tour will start in the V&A Waterfront from where the bus will take visitors on a drive along the Atlantic Seaboard. Thereafter, the floating bus will entering the water at V&A Marina and Harbour.

Called The Duck, Seahorse Amphibious in Windsor, UK, constructed it before The Waterfront Duck Company imported it into South Africa.

SA’s first floating bus: Some history

The General Motors Corporation originally built Ducks for use in World War II. Their model name was ‘DUKW’ and troops started calling them ‘Ducks’. The World War II Ducks are now out of service. The modern Ducks meet modern safety and build standards in order to be safe to use for tourism purposes.

The Ducks played a pivotal role in the success of the war for the allied troops. The DUKW was an adaptation of the CCKW military truck, a truck used extensively during World War II.

After the war, people adapted many Ducks for tourism purposes and civilian use. It was especially popular in the US. The most famous of these are the Boston Ducks. There are about 40 Ducks in the Boston region.

Today, many cities across the world offer this unique experience, e.g. Singapore (Asia), London (UK), and Rotorua (New Zealand). In Wisconsin in the US, visitors can take a ride on an original World War II-era army Duck. They have opted to keep the original military look.

The Duck in Cape Town

Founder, Keith Lindsay, has made it his mission to acquire the necessary permits and safety features to make this amphibious bus tour a reality. Also known as ‘The Duck’, authorities have cleared the vehicle to operate on the water and to drive on the road. The only step that is still left to do is to complete the road certification process at the Cape Town traffic department. Once Lindsay has this done and dusted, the tours will start. SA’s first floating bus is planned to officially launch on 31 July 2024.

For safety reasons, the floating part of the tour will never extend past the confines of the harbour, remaining in protected waters at all times.